8 i^ilmtea and Manna L 



oa. 



they are slowly settling and in time will dispose of all claims to superior elevation. 

 From the base of the cones on Kea the mass of Loa seems not only grander but higher 

 as well. The sides of Kea are dotted with lateral cones making her appear, like ^tna, 

 a "Mother of Mountains."' 



As one sails up the western coast of Hawaii it is difficult to see where Manna 

 Loa ends and Manna Hualalai begins, but at Kailua its distinct and cone -crowned 

 summit rising to the height of 8275 feet, marks its individuality. This mountain has 

 been quiescent for many 3-ears, but unlike Kohala and Kea, of whose former adlivity 

 not even native legends are known, it has been in eruption within the period when 

 white men have had knowledge of this group. Its history is, however, brief, and the 

 exact date is uncertain on which the last eruption occurred. From both natives and 

 missionaries the author obtained the date of iSoi. Others have given 1800 and 1803. 

 Ellis says, "about twenty years ago" in describing his visit in 1823, so it maj^ be con- 

 sidered to have occurred ver^- early iu the nineteenth centur}-. A party of naturalists 



Fig. 7. SUMMIT OF HI'ALAI.AI FROM KAST. 



from Vancouver's expedition, led b}' Mr. A. Menzies, made the first ascent in Januar}^, 

 1794. The account of this given in the narrative of Vancouver's voyage is meagre, 

 the entry under date of January 26 being: 



The party accompanying Mr. Menzies returned with him on Saturday, after having had a 

 very pleasant excursion, though it had been somewhat fatiguing in consequence of the badness of 

 the paths in the interior country, where in many places the ground broke iu under their feet. Their 

 object had been to gain the summit of Mowna Roa [Mauna Loa], which they had not been able to 

 effect in the direcflion they had attempted it ; but they had reached the top of another mountain, which 

 though not so lofty as Mowna-rowna [Mauna Loa] or Mowna kaah [Mauna Kea], is jet very con- 

 spicuous, and is called by the natives Worroray [Hualalai]. This mountain rises from the western 

 extremity of the island, and on its summit was a volcanic crater that readily accounted for the forma- 

 tion of that part of the country over which they had found it so dangerous to travel.' 



Vancouver gives an engraving of a crater on Hualalai, btit it has not been 

 identified. Menzies was a botanist and not a geologist, and his journals are preserved 

 in England from which we learn much of the vegetation of this trip, but little or 

 nothing of the geological condition of this volcano.'' 



^In 1889 the author made the ascent of Mauna Kea from the Hilo side and found it very easj' on horseback. 

 From the Wainiea side the ascent is shorter and easier. 



'A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and ronn<l the World. Ivondon, 1798, vol. Ill, JJ. 14. 

 ■" A portion of his journals has been reprinted in Thrum's Annual for 1908. 



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